Last night we continued our look through scriptures to grow in our understanding and ability to communicate the message of Jesus. Here are the notes:
What’s the issue with Sin? First, the bible states clearly that Sin separates from God. Read Isaiah 59:1-15. Why does sin separate us from God? The first reason is what Isaiah saw in Chapter 6. God is holy. Simply, here in this passage, that would mean that he simply won’t be connected to the kind of things we see happening in chapter 59. (Notice also Psalm 51:4–all sin is against God.)
This is all easier to start to understand more of this when we break it down and look at the different ways the bible describes our relationship to God.
1. God is the Creator (Genesis 1:27-31)
Sin ruins what God made. God made everything good. Sin “vandalizes” the good thing God made, and ruins the good purposes God made it for. (One author says sin vandalizes God’s “Shalom.”) We are meant to be stewards and cultivators of God’s creation. In sin we leave that role and instead become vandalizers of God’s creation, ruining it by twisting it to our purposes which are opposite of God’s purposes. In doing so we cause pain, loss, and death. (See Genesis 9:6 where murder is seen as ruining the image of God, and James 3:9 where cursing each other is seen as cursing the image of God.)
2. God is the Judge (Rev 20:11-13)
Sin is breaking a law by wronging God or someone else, and incurring real moral guilt. Humans are made to be upright, free and spreaders of justice. Sin degrades us and causes us to be in bondage to the effects of our sin, including the incarceration of guilt. (See also 2 Timothy 4:1 and Acts 17:30-31.)
3. God is the King? (Psalm 42:7)
Sin is rebellion against the rightful ruler, Sin is bringing division and war into the kingdom. Humans are made to be citizens of the perfect, eternal kingdom. We are called to share God’s rule with him over the earth, under his authority. In sin we forfeit that place and try to establish our own rule. (See also 1 Timothy 1:17 and Matthew 28:18-20)
4. God is the most important person for us to relate to. (Mark 8:38)
Sin is adultery. Sin breaks the covenant with God and harms a relationship. Sin hurts God. We are called to be I the closets possible relationship to God. Sin ruins that relationship and wounds us by cutting us off from our connection to God. Sin also grieves God. It negatively affects him emotionally; see Ephesians 4:30.
Sin dishonors God as Father. Sin dishonors the head of the family. Sin denies the family connection and tries to break down the family. We are children of God. Sin denies that relationship and the authority of the Father over us. Sin expresses disdain for God’s house. (See Luke 3:38 and Malachi 1:6.)
Sometimes sin is seen as against God in the role of groom or spouse. SeeHosea 1:2.
God is the most important person in the universe. He is the one we most have to relate to. Everything is relational. It’s what the universe is. To ignore it would be like getting married, moving into a house together, and then thinking the relationship is all about the house. You take care of the house, enjoy the house, and live in the house together. But then, when you ignore her and bring home other women, you get confused when she gets mad. It’s not enough to live in the house and take care of it. The meaning of the house is the relationship. To mess up the relationship is to ignore and mess up the whole thing—and when you get a divorce, you’ll lose the house with the relationship. To act like we can ignore, belittle, or pervert our relationship to God, and it shouldn’t matter, is to misunderstand the whole universe.
Summing it up: In each of these cases, we see that sin is an offense against our relationship to God, and his creation, in each of the different aspects of that relationship.
But how, then, does God relate to us in our sin? God loves us, even thought there’s been all this damage we’ve done to the relationship.He is looking for you, and rejoices when you repent: See Luke 15:4-7.